There was nothing more unpleasant than the stale alcohol smell that hit Kim between the eyes as soon as she opened the door to their spare room. "I assume you are not going into work today?" Kim took one look at her husband and cringed a little. He actually looked green and for the briefest moment she actually felt sorry for him, but it was a fleeting sympathetic feeling.
"No." he croaked, prising one eye open and quickly closing it again when the light hit it and sent a throbbing pain shooting through his head.
Kim placed a glass of water and a couple of Advil beside the bed. She did care, just a little bit. "Do you want me to call in?" Not that you could tell by her tone of voice.
"No need, Halstead gave me the rest of the week off." This was news to Kim. He rolled over gingerly and laid his arm over his eyes to block out the light that was suddenly flooding into the room from the open door. "I think I am dying."
"Oh get over yourself. You've got a hangover."
"It feels like I am dying." Kim did not miss this. Adam rarely got this drunk anymore but when he did he had perfected his dying swan routine. Even when he was sick he was pathetic; annoyingly so. No one ever suffered quite like Adam did.
"You are not dying."
"You are being mean to me."
"Only because you are acting like a three year old." She felt like she was talking to a child and even had her hands on her hips like she used to do when Polly and Gus were fighting like two rats in a sack.
"When the kids are sick you are much nicer to them." Adam whined.
"You are not sick, this is all your own doing and because I love my children." Kim was having none of his shit, not today, not until he manned up and told her what was going on. Adam just continued to whine. "You, right now, not so much."
Kim sighed and closed the door. She would deal with him later. "Where's Dad?" Gus asked when she came back into the kitchen frowning at his bowl of cereal that was so full he couldn't even lift it off the bench without spilling it. He bent down and sipped the milk directly out of the bowl before he just started shovelling it in. Kim chose to ignore it, luckily for Gus Adam had diverted her attention and nothing he could do was as bad as whatever her husband had done.
"In bed. He's regretting going out last night and getting drunk."
"Like how drunk?"
"Like, far too drunk for his own good and now he thinks he is going to die type drunk."
"Cool." He nodded as he placed his bowl in the sink. Kim was constantly shocked at how quick he ate and no matter how many times she told him to slow down it made no difference, particularly in the mornings when he woke up starving.
"No, not cool Gus. It's incredibly stupid and pathetic."
It was then that Kim decided that Adam wasn't going to hide away in the spare room sleeping off his hangover. Angus was going to see how much this hurt. Every other time that Adam, or Kim for that matter had a hangover they would lock themselves away from the kids until they felt somewhat human. Not today. She wasn't having Angus thinking this was his Dad being cool or fun.
"Adam you need to get up and take Gus to school."
Why was she yelling at him all of a sudden? "What? Why?"
"Because he thinks you are cool for getting drunk and having a hangover and he needs to see how much you are suffering." Her voice had taken on a slightly nastier tone; he was coherent enough to notice that. He wasn't with it enough to know what it meant or realise that whining wasn't going to help.
"Baby I can't drive."
"Fine, I will drive and you will get up and get in the car and come with us."
"Fucking hell." He moaned. "Just send him in here I will show him how shit I feel."
"No, get up."
"Kim." He tried to plead his case but she had flicked on the light and pulled back the Duvet. He was screwed and was pretty sure he was going to vomit at some stage through this whole process and Kim would have no one to blame but herself…..and him of course, she would completely blame him.
"Wow." Gus choked out when he saw his Dad stagger into the kitchen, still wearing the same clothes he went to work in yesterday looking for coffee.
"Don't say a word."
"You look sprightly this morning Sweetheart." Kim just laughed at him. He seriously felt like utter shit and Kim laughing at him wasn't appreciated and the look he gave her told her precisely that. A minute ago she was practically yelling at him and now she was cackling away. Fuck that for a joke. Gus knew he was better off out of the way and scuttled from the kitchen before he got caught in the crossfire.
"I am so glad you all find this so god damn amusing." Adam sipped on the coffee and waited to make sure it stayed put. He had barely kept the water and Advil in his stomach. What the hell did he drink last night? He recalled tequila shots and that never ever ended well for him. "Do I have time for a shower?"
"Ten minutes."
"Where is Polly?"
"Getting ready. She is going back to school today. Dress nicely Babe, we are meeting with the principal."
"What?"
"I just called her and set up a time to have a chat." They had talked about this, that they wanted to talk to the school to make sure they had all their bases covered with regards to Polly and how she was coping with everything that had happened and also Gus, he was at risk too. He just didn't expect to have to do it today.
"Really, today? Why are you being such a bitch?"
"Did you really just call me a bitch?" Kim was not amused. He often called her that and generally he always had a smile on his face and used it as a term of endearment. Kim was often his kitchen bitch, shopping bitch or sneaky bitch just as she often called him a bastard. Whether it was his rough state or just her mood this morning but she didn't find it quite so endearing.
"Sorry Darlin'. You are my sexy hot bitch though." Adam leant in to give her a kiss and Kim pushed him away angrily. His weak pathetic attempt at making that sound better than it did fell on deaf ears. "I love you."
"Go away Adam." Kim turned her back on him. "You stink, go shower and get dressed."
He reappeared 15 minutes later, looking cleaner but no less worse for wear. Kim handed him some toast and cup of coffee and quite frankly he was lucky to get that. He slid his sunglasses on and reluctantly followed Kim and the kids out to the car. "You are enjoying this aren't you?" He muttered to Kim as he turned the radio down to barely above a whisper. He dared not move too quickly in case it disturbed the delicate balance he had going on right now.
"A little."
Polly was far from impressed to find out that her parents were coming into school to meet the Principal and talk about her. "What for?" she shrieked and Adam physically cringed at the shrillness of her voice. It was like fingernails on a chalkboard in his fragile state.
"Because we are." Adam muttered when he finally found the will to speak.
"Jesus, I am fine. I don't need you making a big deal out of this. I mean look at you, you look like shit on a stick." As soon as Kim heard Polly's tone of voice she knew Adam was going to lose his temper, he wasn't in the greatest mood as it was. One thing he never tolerated was backchat; he got enough of that at work.
"Watch the attitude." He snarled and Kim could feel the tension rising in the car. Gus wisely put his ear buds in and listened to his music and stayed well out of it.
"Just what I want my drunk father embarrassing me in front of the whole school."
He spun around in his seat so quick he actually thought he was going to vomit. "Excuse me?"
"Look at you. Are you actually going to take your sunglasses off so we can see your bleary eyes? You look like shit."
"You know what Polly?" Kim rested a hand on Adam's arm but there was no stopping him. "What do you want me to do? Not give a fuck? Do you want us not to care about you? Because guess what? Not going to happen. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. So deal with it."
"This will just make it harder for me. Everyone will be talking about it."
"Suck it up. This what happens when you have parents that love you and care about you." Adam just kept going. "We deal with this shit every single fucking day, we see how it affects people and I am not going to sit by and watch you fall in some hole, not on my watch. I don't want this to swallow you up. So forgive me for trying to do everything I possibly can to help you." He turned back around and stared out the window. Reaching for the bottle of water that Kim took with her everywhere he took a few small sips as he tried to keep himself from tossing his cookies.
"Mom."
"You know what Polly, I agree with your Dad. Probably not the way he chose to explain it but nonetheless we are on the same page. And whether you believe it or not we are on your side." Kim did agree with Adam, she was pissed off with his outburst but he wasn't wrong. They were not going to sit back and watch her spin out of control.
"How pissed is Polly going to be when she finds out about the counselling?" He opened the door for Kim as she climbed into driver's side, Adam slid into the passenger seat still feeling a little delicate after they had met with the Principal. They had always liked her, she was rational and calm and reassured them that they would keep an eye on Polly and Gus. Even when Kim suggested that Polly was worried that people would make things harder for her she promised them that Polly wouldn't even realise that they were keeping an eye on her and the moment her grades started to suffer they would be the first to know. When Kim bought up some counselling Mrs Watson was happy to arrange for her to meet the school counsellor and that they would also make the same offer to Abbey's other close friends and classmates. It was standard procedure when something like this happened, which fortunately wasn't all that often.
"Perhaps I should tell her? You're speech earlier left a lot to be desired." Kim forced herself to laugh a little, although nothing was particularly amusing about any of this.
"I thought it was epic?"
"You would."
He poked her leg lightly. "You didn't disagree though?"
"No I didn't disagree but you certainly didn't pull any punches."
"Well its not like things could get any worse for me is it? She hates me." It really upset Kim how personally Adam was taking this. She had tried to talk to him about it but he just couldn't deal with it.
"She doesn't hate you, Adam don't say that I think she is just really confused and struggling a little bit." Adam just nodded and kept staring straight ahead at the road.
"A little bit." He snorted. "Easy for you to say."
"No it's not actually. I don't like it either."
Adam was done with it, talking to Kim about it ad nauseam wasn't going to change anything. "Brunch?" He was still feeling pretty seedy but at least felt well enough to try eat in the vain hope it would be a miracle cure and it was also helping him avoid the inevitable conversation about yesterday. Kim knew that he was stalling and let him run with it for a while. Instead they talked about what they thought was going on in Polly's head with regards to Sam, who seemed to be on the outer and also Abbey and what to do with Angus, he couldn't just be left to twist in the wind.
Adam didn't make it through his coffee before Kim bought up the elephant in the room. "Al called yesterday." She decided to dive in, they couldn't avoid it and talk about everything but what he was hiding from her. Kim was watching him carefully, what he said and his body language were often two completely different things. Like right now, she could see his shoulders sag just a little. "Asking how you were doing?"
"Did he?"
"He was concerned about you apparently."
"Really?"
"You are not going to tell me?" He was hiding something from her; she could see it.
"Yes, but not right now. Let's have something to eat and go home and then we can talk."
"That doesn't fill me with any confidence Adam." He leant back as the waitress bought their food over. A good greasy breakfast was exactly what he needed right now while Kim picked at a muffin. He had noticed that she wasn't eating much the last few days. When Kim got stressed she tended to lose weight through not eating. So not only did Adam worry about Polly he was starting to worry about Kim too.
"I know. Think of it like this. I just lost it yesterday and needed a shoulder to cry on. You weren't available so Al stood in. "
"This that why Jay gave you the rest of the week off?"
"The case is done, he thinks I could do with a bit of time with you guys, especially Polly. We've got nothing else on right now. That's all."
That wasn't all and she knew it and Adam was well aware he had bought himself very little time. "When we get home." He rubbed her thigh under the table and turned his attention to his breakfast. "Are you going to eat?" as he shoved a mouthful of food in and nodded at her barely eaten muffin.
"Are you really going to nag me?"
"Maybe." An uneasy silence fell between them. "Am I not allowed to even comment about your lack of appetite?"
"No. I had breakfast but you were dying in bed and carrying on like a three year old. Forgive me for not being hungry right now." Adam just shut his mouth and ate his breakfast. He knew better than to keep pushing the issue, he had actually learnt something from their 17 years of marriage.
Adam patted the couch and asked Kim to sit with him pretty much as soon as they walked through the door. "I know I told you that Simon finally gave a confession about what he did to Abbey." He had called Kim briefly to tell her that it was over and that he was going out for a drink after work. Kim waited for him to continue.
"They finished decrypting Simon's cloud."
"And."
"He had a lot of photos of Abbey and they weren't good Kim…" she did not like the look on Adam's face and the way he was holding her hand so tightly. "…and he also had photos of her friends."
"Polly?"
Adam nodded. "He had photos of Polly."
Kim reefed her hands away from him. "And you are telling me this now?"
"I freaked out. I've seen them and trust me Darlin' there is nothing bad on there of Polly."
"How can you say that?" she wanted to hit him. "A Paedophile has photos of our daughter?"
"I know, don't you think I know that? There were photos of her friends hanging out, we have photos like that."
"Don't even." She held up her hand to stop him. "Don't you dare."
"Look Kim, he'd obviously cropped some of them to zoom in on some of the girls, Polly included but there was nothing to indicate that the girls even knew that they were being taken. It still made me fucking wild and I lost my shit. Al came in to make sure I didn't do anything stupid."
"Oh God Adam. Why is this happening? Why does this just keep getting worse?"
"Polly does not need to know about this." Somewhere along the line he had convinced himself that there was no valid reason to tell Polly about them. She had promised them that Simon didn't touch her and while the photos were uncomfortable to look at, they weren't explicit in any way. The photos of Abbey were a whole different story but he couldn't think about that now. All he could think about was Polly. What would it achieve by telling her?
"Of course she does."
"There was one more thing." Adam reached out for Kim's hand again and he wasn't letting her go this time. "When Halstead was interviewing him he tried to provoke me into losing it. He made a crack about Polly."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" She tried to pull her hands away but Adam held her tighter.
"No."
"What did he say?" Adam shook his head and refused to tell her and he finally let go of her hands when Kim was starting to fight against him. They didn't do this; this was not their relationship, if he didn't let go he was going to hurt her and that is something he would never do, not in a million years would he physically hurt his wife. "And you did nothing?"
"Atwater had to hold me back. I wanted to kill him, I still do."
"I can't believe this." She shoved him hard in the chest. "And rather than come home you go out and get blind fucking drunk." Adam watched as she stormed from the house, grabbing her bag and keys and slamming the door behind her.
"Well that went well." He leant back and closed his eyes. Why shouldn't this day be as bad as the rest of them?